US10616377B2 - System and method for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality - Google Patents

Abstract

Novel tools and techniques are provided for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality, and, in particular embodiments, for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality using network functions virtualization (“NFV”) and/or software defined networks (“SDNs”). In some embodiments, a network switch, which is disposed within a gateway device, might route network traffic to a host computing system, at least a portion of the network traffic being originally directed to a client device via a corresponding client port among a plurality of client ports. Based at least in part on one or more characteristics of the at least a portion of the network traffic, the host computing system selects one or more virtual network functions (“VNFs”), which are then sent to the host computing system via the network switch. According to some embodiments, the network switch and the host computing system are under control of a NFV entity and/or a SDN controller.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 62/157,795 (the “'795 application”), filed May 6, 2015 by Charles I. Cook et al. and titled, “NFVI Enhanced Open Business/Residential Gateways and Customer Portal”, U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 62/159,788 (the “'788 application”), filed May 11, 2015 by Charles I. Cook et al. and titled, “NFVI Enhanced Open Business/Residential Gateways and Customer Portal”, U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 62/172,359 (the “'359 application”), filed Jun. 8, 2015 by Charles I. Cook et al. and titled, “Enhanced LAN With Customer Portal Control”.

This application may be related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/678,208 (the “'208 application”), filed Apr. 3, 2015 by Michael J. Fargano et al. and titled, “Network Functions Virtualization Interconnection Gateway”, which claims priority to U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 61/974,927, filed Apr. 3, 2014 by Michael J. Fargano and titled, “Network Functions Virtualization Interconnection Gateway”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/678,280 (the “'280 application”), filed on Apr. 3, 2015 by Michael J. Fargano et al. and titled, “Network Functions Virtualization Interconnection Hub”, which claims priority to U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 61/974,930, filed Apr. 3, 2014 by Michael J. Fargano and titled, “Network Functions Virtualization Interconnection Hub”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/678,309 (the “'309 application”), filed Apr. 3, 2015 by Michael J. Fargano et. al and titled, “Customer Environment Network Functions Virtualization (NFV)”, which claims priority to U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 61/976,896, filed Apr. 8, 2014 by Michael J. Fargano and titled, “Customer Environment Network Functions Virtualization (NFV)” and U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 61/977,820, filed Apr. 10, 2014 by Michael J. Fargano and titled, “Customer Environment Network Functions Virtualization (NFV)”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/730,695 (the “'695 application”), filed Jun. 4, 2015 by Charles I. Cook et al. and titled, “Remoting Application Servers”, which claims priority to U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 62/037,096, filed Aug. 13, 2014 by Charles I. Cook et al. and titled, “Remoting Application Servers”; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/983,884 (the “'884 application”), filed Dec. 30, 2015 by Kevin M. McBride et al. and titled, “Intent-Based Services Orchestration”, which claims priority to U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 62/233,911, filed Sep. 28, 2015 by Kevin M. McBride et al. and titled, “Intent-Based Services Orchestration” and U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 62/247,294, filed Oct. 28, 2015 by Kevin M. McBride et al. and titled, “Intent-Based Services Orchestration”; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/983,758 (the “'758 application”), filed Dec. 30, 2015 by Michael K. Bugenhagen and titled, “Virtual Machine-To-Port Peripheral Device Driver”, which claims priority to U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 62/237,981, filed Oct. 6, 2015 by Michael K. Bugenhagen and titled, “NFV Peripheral Network Driver for VNF's”.

The respective disclosures of these applications/patents (which this document refers to collectively as the “Related Applications”) are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety for all purposes.

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates, in general, to methods, systems, apparatus, and computer software for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality, and, in particular embodiments, to methods, systems, apparatus, and computer software for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality using network functions virtualization (“NFV”) and/or software defined networks (“SDNs”).

BACKGROUND

Historically, wide area network/local area network (“WAN/LAN”) network functions or functionality have been performed by dedicated hardware in a network interface device (“NID”) or gateway device that is located at the customer location or customer premises. The NID or gateway device comprises a user network interface (“UNI”), which is in essence the demarcation point for the service. Maintaining dedicated NID or gateway deployments requires both firmware and software upgrades, but yields no “bump in the wire” or platform capabilities, and has diminishing value as new services and features emerge that the NID or gateway device cannot support.

Hence, there is a need for more robust and scalable solutions for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality, and, in particular embodiments, to methods, systems, apparatus, and computer software for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality using network functions virtualization (“NFV”) and/or software defined networks (“SDNs”).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A further understanding of the nature and advantages of particular embodiments may be realized by reference to the remaining portions of the specification and the drawings, in which like reference numerals are used to refer to similar components. In some instances, a sub-label is associated with a reference numeral to denote one of multiple similar components. When reference is made to a reference numeral without specification to an existing sub-label, it is intended to refer to all such multiple similar components.

FIG. 1A is a schematic diagram illustrating a system for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 1B is a schematic diagram illustrating an alternative system for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating another system for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating yet another system for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating still another system for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary computer or system hardware architecture, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a networked system of computers, computing systems, or system hardware architecture, which can be used in accordance with various embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF CERTAIN EMBODIMENTS

Overview

Various embodiments provide tools and techniques for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality, and, in particular embodiments, to methods, systems, apparatus, and computer software for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality using network functions virtualization (“NFV”) and/or software defined networks (“SDNs”).

In various embodiments, a network switch, which is disposed within a gateway device, might route network traffic to a host computing system, at least a portion of the network traffic being originally directed to a client device via the network switch and via a corresponding client port among a plurality of client ports. Based at least in part on one or more characteristics of the at least a portion of the network traffic that is directed to the client device, the host computing system selects one or more virtual network functions (“VNFs”). The selected one or more VNFs are then sent to the host computing system via the network switch. In some embodiments, the client devices might be VNF-capable (including, but not limited to, a set-top box or a local Internet of Things (“IoT”) controller, and/or the like), and the host computing system might send one or more second VNFs (which might be the same as the selected one or more VNFs or might be based on the selected one or more VNFs) to the client devices via the network switch and corresponding client port. According to some embodiments, the network switch and the host computing system are under control of a NFV entity and/or a SDN controller, which provide network enhanced gateway functionalities to the gateway device, as described herein. In some cases, the NFV entity might include, but is not limited to, at least one of a NFV orchestrator, a network functions virtualization infrastructure (“NFVI”) system, a NFV management and orchestration (“MANO”) system, a VNF manager, a NFV resource manager, a virtualized infrastructure manager (“VIM”), a virtual machine (“VM”), a macro orchestrator, or a domain orchestrator, and/or the like.

The network traffic between the network switch and the host computing system, in some embodiments, is at least one of uni-directional network traffic, bi-directional network traffic, or split directional network traffic that originates from at least one of one or more of the plurality of client ports or one or more network ports. In some cases, the one or more characteristics of the received network traffic comprises at least one of one or more attributes of an Ethernet frame, one or more media access control (“MAC”) source addresses, one or more MAC destination addresses, one or more Internet Protocol (“IP”) source addresses, one or more IP destination addresses, one or more transmission control protocol (“TCP”) source ports, one or more TCP destination ports, one or more priority bits, one or more particular bit patterns, bandwidth of a flow, one or more switch ports, one or more ingress ports, one or more Ethernet type identifiers, one or more virtual local area network (“VLAN”) identifiers, one or more network protocol identifiers, or one or more action instructions, and/or the like.

According to some embodiments, the host computing system and the network switch are disposed within a single gateway device. Alternatively, or additionally, the host computing system (or a second host computing system) might be located external to a gateway device in which the network switch is disposed, the gateway device might comprise a host port(s), and the host computing system might communicatively couple to the network switch via the host port(s). The gateway device, in some embodiments, might include, without limitation, at least one of a customer premises equipment (“CPE”), a router, a switch, a network element, a demarcation device, a WiFi gateway device, a hypervisor platform, and one or more virtual machine-based host machines, and/or the like. The CPE, which might be located at or near a customer premises associated with a user of the client device, might comprise at least one of an optical network terminal (“ONT”), a network interface device (“NID”), an enhanced NID (“eNID”), a residential gateway (“RG”) device, a business gateway (“BG”) device, or a virtual gateway (“vG”) device, and/or the like.

Merely by way of example, the client device might comprise a user device, including, but not limited to, one of a tablet computer, a smart phone, a mobile phone, a portable gaming device, a laptop computer, or a desktop computer, and/or the like. Alternatively, the client device might include a device selected from a group consisting of a small form factor pluggable (“SFP”) device, an enhanced SFP (“SFP+”) device, a compact SFP (“CSFP”) device, a gigabit interface converter (“GBIC”), a universal serial bus (“USB”) pluggable device, and/or the like. In some cases, at least one of the SFP device, the SFP+ device, or the CSFP device might comprise at least one of a SFP network interface device (“NID”), a SFP router, a SFP modem, or a SFP wireless access point, and/or the like. In some instances, the USB pluggable device might comprise one of a printer, a scanner, a combination printer/scanner device, an external hard drive, a camera, a keyboard, a mouse, a drawing interface device, or a mobile device, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, the one or more VNFs provide the client device with one or more functions, the one or more functions comprising at least one of an activation function, an operation function, a deletion function, a specialized function, a firewall function, an Internet of Things (“IoT”) proxy function, an application-related function, or an operations, administration, and management (“OAM”) function, and/or the like. In some cases, the specialized function might itself be a VNF. According to some embodiments, each of the plurality of client ports might include, without limitation, one of a local area network (“LAN”) port, a Wi-Fi port, an advanced technology attachment (“ATA”) port, a serial ATA (“SATA”) port, an external SATA (“eSATA”) port, a powered eSATA (“eSATAp”) port, a mini SATA (“mSATA”) port, a SATA Express port, a M.2 port, or a universal serial bus (“USB”) port, and/or the like.

In various aspects, the host computing system might comprise one or more computing cores, preferably two or more computing cores. In some cases, at least one first computing core might perform functions of a gateway device, while at least one second computing core might perform hypervisor functions to support VNFs. According to some embodiments, the host computing system might comprise at least one of an x86 host computing device or an advanced reduced instruction set computer (“RISC”) machine (“ARM”) computing device. In some embodiments, the network switch might be a virtual network switch that utilizes a network switch VNF to provide network switching functionality. In some instances, the transceiver might be a virtual transceiver that utilizes a transceiver VNF to provide transceiver functionality.

The various embodiments address the abovementioned issues that exist in conventional NIDs or similar gateway devices, by altering the composure of the NID or other gateway device to take on a “platform” approach that places virtualization in the network for the customer or provider to leverage at the central office, at the NID or gateway device, or attached to the NID or gateway device itself, thereby effectively becoming a network enhanced NID or gateway device. The network enhanced NID or gateway device, by virtue of its “platform” capability, enables a more future-proof infrastructure that can provide support for new applications and/or functions.

The following detailed description illustrates a few exemplary embodiments in further detail to enable one of skill in the art to practice such embodiments. The described examples are provided for illustrative purposes and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the described embodiments. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art, however, that other embodiments of the present invention may be practiced without some of these specific details. In other instances, certain structures and devices are shown in block diagram form. Several embodiments are described herein, and while various features are ascribed to different embodiments, it should be appreciated that the features described with respect to one embodiment may be incorporated with other embodiments as well. By the same token, however, no single feature or features of any described embodiment should be considered essential to every embodiment of the invention, as other embodiments of the invention may omit such features.

Unless otherwise indicated, all numbers used herein to express quantities, dimensions, and so forth used should be understood as being modified in all instances by the term “about.” In this application, the use of the singular includes the plural unless specifically stated otherwise, and use of the terms “and” and “or” means “and/or” unless otherwise indicated. Moreover, the use of the term “including,” as well as other forms, such as “includes” and “included,” should be considered non-exclusive. Also, terms such as “element” or “component” encompass both elements and components comprising one unit and elements and components that comprise more than one unit, unless specifically stated otherwise.

The tools provided by various embodiments include, without limitation, methods, systems, and/or software products. Merely by way of example, a method might comprise one or more procedures, any or all of which are executed by a computer system. Correspondingly, an embodiment might provide a computer system configured with instructions to perform one or more procedures in accordance with methods provided by various other embodiments. Similarly, a computer program might comprise a set of instructions that are executable by a computer system (and/or a processor therein) to perform such operations. In many cases, such software programs are encoded on physical, tangible, and/or non-transitory computer readable media (such as, to name but a few examples, optical media, magnetic media, and/or the like).

Various embodiments described herein, while embodying (in some cases) software products, computer-performed methods, and/or computer systems, represent tangible, concrete improvements to existing technological areas, including, without limitation, network virtualization technology, network configuration technology, network resource allocation technology, residential/business/virtual gateway function technology, and/or the like. In other aspects, certain embodiments, can improve the functioning of user equipment or systems themselves (e.g., telecommunications equipment, network equipment, client devices, host computing devices, network switches, etc.), for example, by selecting particular virtual network functions (“VNFs”) based at least on one or more characteristics of network traffic flowing through the residential/business/virtual gateway, and sending (or providing access to) the selected VNFs to the network equipment (including, without limitation, one or more of the network switch, the host computing system(s), the transceiver, the network port(s), the client port(s), the client device(s), and/or the like), and/or the like. In particular, to the extent any abstract concepts are present in the various embodiments, those concepts can be implemented as described herein by devices, software, systems, and methods that involve specific novel functionality (e.g., steps or operations), such as improving the functionality of the network components or equipment (e.g., the gateway device or the like), improving the functionality of client devices that are communicatively coupled to the gateway device, improving the network itself, and/or the like, to name a few examples, that extend beyond mere conventional computer processing operations. These functionalities can produce tangible results outside of the implementing computer system, including, merely by way of example, ability to select particular VNFs based at least on one or more characteristics of network traffic flowing through the gateway device, ability to send or provide access to the selected VNFs, improvement to the functionality of the gateway device, improvement to the functionality of client devices that are communicatively coupled to the gateway device, improvement to the network itself, and/or the like, which may be observed or measured by customers and/or service providers.

In an aspect, a method might comprise receiving, with a network switch disposed within a gateway device, network traffic, at least a portion of the network traffic being directed to a client device via the network switch and via corresponding client port among a plurality of client ports, and routing, with the network switch, the network traffic to a host computing system. The method might further comprise selecting, with the host computing system, one or more virtual network functions (“VNFs”), based at least in part on one or more characteristics of the received network traffic, and sending, via the network switch, at least one VNF of the selected one or more VNFs to the host computing system, the at least one VNF being selected by the host computing system based at least in part on one or more characteristics of the at least a portion of the network traffic that is directed to the client device.

In some embodiments, the network switch and the host computing system might be under control of at least one of a network functions virtualization (“NFV”) entity or a software defined network (“SDN”) controller. In some cases, the NFV entity might comprise at least one of a NFV orchestrator, a network functions virtualization infrastructure (“NFVI”) system, a NFV management and orchestration (“MANO”) system, a VNF manager, a NFV resource manager, a virtualized infrastructure manager (“VIM”), a virtual machine (“VM”), a macro orchestrator, or a domain orchestrator, and/or the like.

According to some embodiments, the host computing system and the network switch might be disposed within a single gateway device. Alternatively, or additionally, the host computing system (or a second host computing system) might be located external to the gateway device in which the network switch is disposed, the gateway device might comprise a host port, and the host computing system might communicatively couple to the network switch via the host port. In some instances, the host computing system might host an instantiated network functions virtualization infrastructure (“NFVI”) system.

Merely by way of example, in some embodiments, the network switch might comprise at least one network-to-network interface (“NNI”) and at least one user network interface (“UNI”), the NNI receiving the network traffic and communicatively coupling with the host computing system, and the UNI communicatively coupling with the client device via the corresponding client port of the plurality of client ports. According to some embodiments, the network switch might be a virtual network switch that utilizes a network switch VNF to provide network switching functionality.

In some instances, the gateway device might be selected from a group consisting of a customer premises equipment (“CPE”), a router, a switch, a network element, a demarcation device, a WiFi gateway device, a hypervisor platform, and one or more virtual machine-based host machines. The CPE, in some cases, might comprise at least one of an optical network terminal (“ONT”), a network interface device (“NID”), an enhanced NID (“eNID”), a residential gateway (“RG”) device, a business gateway (“BG”) device, or a virtual gateway (“vG”) device, and/or the like, and the gateway device might be located at or near a customer premises associated with a user of the client device.

The client device, according to some embodiments, might include, without limitation, a user device comprising one of a tablet computer, a smart phone, a mobile phone, a portable gaming device, a laptop computer, or a desktop computer, and/or the like. Alternatively, the client device might include a device selected from a group consisting of a small form factor pluggable (“SFP”) device, an enhanced SFP (“SFP+”) device, a compact SFP (“CSFP”) device, a gigabit interface converter (“GBIC”), and a universal serial bus (“USB”) pluggable device, and/or the like. In some cases, at least one of the SFP device, the SFP+ device, or the CSFP device might comprise at least one of a SFP network interface device (“NID”), a SFP router, a SFP modem, or a SFP wireless access point, and/or the like. The USB pluggable device, in some instances, might comprise one of a printer, a scanner, a combination printer/scanner device, an external hard drive, a camera, a keyboard, a mouse, a drawing interface device, or a mobile device, and/or the like.

According to some embodiments, the client device includes a VNF-capable user device comprising one of a set-top box or an Internet of Things (“IoT”) controller, wherein the method further comprises sending, with the host computing system and via the network switch and the corresponding client port, at least one second VNF of the selected one or more VNFs to the client device, the at least one second VNF being selected by the host computing system based at least in part on one or more characteristics of the at least a portion of the network traffic that is directed to the client device. In some cases, sending, with the host computing system and via the network switch and the corresponding client port, the selected one or more VNFs to the client device might comprise bursting, using an application programming interface (“API”), the one or more VNFs from the NFV entity to the client device. In some embodiments, the one or more VNFs might provide the client device with one or more functions, the one or more functions comprising at least one of an activation function, an operation function, a deletion function, a specialized function, a firewall function, an Internet of Things (“IoT”) proxy function, an application-related function, or an operations, administration, and management (“OAM”) function, and/or the like.

Merely by way of example, in some instances, each of the plurality of client ports might comprise one of a local area network (“LAN”) port, a Wi-Fi port, an advanced technology attachment (“ATA”) port, a serial ATA (“SATA”) port, an external SATA (“eSATA”) port, a powered eSATA (“eSATAp”) port, a mini SATA (“mSATA”) port, a SATA Express port, a M.2 port, or a universal serial bus (“USB”) port, and/or the like. The network traffic between the network switch and the host computing system, in some embodiments, might be at least one of uni-directional network traffic, bi-directional network traffic, or split directional network traffic that originates from at least one of one or more of the plurality of client ports or one or more network ports. According to some embodiments, the one or more characteristics of the received network traffic might comprise at least one of one or more attributes of an Ethernet frame, one or more media access control (“MAC”) source addresses, one or more MAC destination addresses, one or more Internet Protocol (“IP”) source addresses, one or more IP destination addresses, one or more transmission control protocol (“TCP”) source ports, one or more TCP destination ports, one or more priority bits, one or more particular bit patterns, bandwidth of a flow, one or more switch ports, one or more ingress ports, one or more Ethernet type identifiers, one or more virtual local area network (“VLAN”) identifiers, one or more network protocol identifiers, or one or more action instructions, and/or the like.

In another aspect, a gateway device might comprise a transceiver, a plurality of client ports, and a network switch communicatively coupled to the transceiver and to each of the plurality of client ports. The network switch might receive network traffic, at least a portion of the network traffic being directed from the transceiver to a client device via the network switch and a corresponding client port among the plurality of client ports; route the network traffic to a host computing system; and forward one or more virtual network functions (“VNFs”) to the host computing system, the one or more VNFs being selected by the host computing system based at least in part on one or more characteristics of the at least a portion of the network traffic that is directed to the client device.

In some embodiments, the gateway device might further comprise the host computing system. Alternatively, or additionally, the gateway device might comprise a host port. In some cases, the host computing system might communicatively couple with the network switch via the host port. According to some embodiments, the host computing system might comprise at least one of an x86 host computing device or an advanced reduced instruction set computer (“RISC”) machine (“ARM”) computing device, and/or the like. In some cases, the host computing system comprises one or more computing cores (preferably, two or more computing cores).

According to some embodiments, the network switch and the host computing system might be under control of at least one of a network functions virtualization (“NFV”) entity or a software defined network (“SDN”) controller. The NFV entity, in some instances, might comprise at least one of a NFV orchestrator, a network functions virtualization infrastructure (“NFVI”) system, a NFV management and orchestration (“MANO”) system, a VNF manager, a NFV resource manager, a virtualized infrastructure manager (“VIM”), a virtual machine (“VM”), a macro orchestrator, or a domain orchestrator, and/or the like. In some embodiments, the network switch might be a virtual network switch that utilizes a network switch VNF to provide network switching functionality. In some cases, the transceiver might likewise be a virtual transceiver that utilizes a transceiver VNF to provide transceiver functionality.

Merely by way of example, in some embodiments, the gateway device might be selected from a group consisting of a customer premises equipment (“CPE”), a router, a switch, a network element, a demarcation device, a WiFi gateway device, a hypervisor platform, and one or more virtual machine-based host machines, and/or the like. The CPE, in some cases, might comprise at least one of an optical network terminal (“ONT”), a network interface device (“NID”), an enhanced NID (“eNID”), a residential gateway (“RG”) device, a business gateway (“BG”) device, or a virtual gateway (“vG”) device, and/or the like, and the gateway device might be located at or near a customer premises associated with a user of the client device. According to some embodiments, each of the plurality of client ports might comprise one of a local area network (“LAN”) port, a Wi-Fi port, an advanced technology attachment (“ATA”) port, a serial ATA (“SATA”) port, an external SATA (“eSATA”) port, a powered eSATA (“eSATAp”) port, a mini SATA (“mSATA”) port, a SATA Express port, a M.2 port, or a universal serial bus (“USB”) port, and/or the like.

In yet another aspect, a system might comprise a network switch, a host computing system, and at least one of a network functions virtualization (“NFV”) entity or a software defined network (“SDN”) controller. The at least one of the NFV entity or the SDN controller controlling: the network switch to route network traffic, at least a portion of which is directed to a client device via the network switch and a corresponding client port among a plurality of client ports, to the host computing system; the host computing system to select one or more virtual network functions (“VNFs”), based at least in part on one or more characteristics of the received network traffic; and the network switch to forward at least one VNF of the selected one or more VNFs to the host computing system, the at least one VNF being selected by the host computing system based at least in part on one or more characteristics of the at least a portion of the network traffic that is directed to the client device.

In some embodiments, the NFV entity might comprise at least one of a NFV orchestrator, a network functions virtualization infrastructure (“NFVI”) system, a NFV management and orchestration (“MANO”) system, a VNF manager, a NFV resource manager, a virtualized infrastructure manager (“VIM”), a virtual machine (“VM”), a macro orchestrator, or a domain orchestrator, and/or the like. In some cases, the host computing system and the network switch might be disposed within a single gateway device. Alternatively, or additionally, the host computing system (or a second host computing system) might be located external to a gateway device in which the network switch is disposed, the gateway device might comprise a host port, and the host computing system might communicatively couple to the network switch via the host port. In some instances, the host computing system might host an instantiated network functions virtualization infrastructure (“NFVI”) system.

According to some embodiments, each of the plurality of client ports might comprise one of a local area network (“LAN”) port, a Wi-Fi port, an advanced technology attachment (“ATA”) port, a serial ATA (“SATA”) port, an external SATA (“eSATA”) port, a powered eSATA (“eSATAp”) port, a mini SATA (“mSATA”) port, a SATA Express port, a M.2 port, or a universal serial bus (“USB”) port, and/or the like.

Various modifications and additions can be made to the embodiments discussed without departing from the scope of the invention. For example, while the embodiments described above refer to particular features, the scope of this invention also includes embodiments having different combination of features and embodiments that do not include all of the above described features.

Specific Exemplary Embodiments

We now turn to the embodiments as illustrated by the drawings.FIGS. 1-7 illustrate some of the features of the method, system, and apparatus for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality, and, in particular embodiments, to methods, systems, apparatus, and computer software for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality using network functions virtualization (“NFV”) and/or software defined networks (“SDNs”), as referred to above. The methods, systems, and apparatuses illustrated byFIGS. 1-7 refer to examples of different embodiments that include various components and steps, which can be considered alternatives or which can be used in conjunction with one another in the various embodiments. The description of the illustrated methods, systems, and apparatuses shown inFIGS. 1-7 is provided for purposes of illustration and should not be considered to limit the scope of the different embodiments.

With reference to the figures,FIG. 1A is a schematic diagram illustrating asystem100 for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality, in accordance with various embodiments. InFIG. 1A,system100 might comprise agateway device105, which might include, without limitation, aswitch110, at least onetransceiver115, and one ormore client ports120, and/or the like. In some cases, thegateway device105 might further comprise one ormore computing systems125a. Alternatively, or additionally, thegateway device105 might further comprise one ormore host ports130, each communicatively coupled to one or moreexternal computing systems125b. The one ormore computing systems125aand the one or moreexternal computing systems125bare collectively referred to herein as “computing systems125” or “host computing systems125.”

In some embodiments, the host computing systems125 might each comprise at least one of an x86 host computing device or an advanced reduced instruction set computer (“RISC”) machine (“ARM”) computing device, and/or the like. In some cases, the host computing systems125 might each comprise one or more computing cores, preferably two or more computing cores. In some instances, at least one first computing core might perform functions of a gateway device, while at least one second computing core might perform hypervisor functions to support virtual network functions (“VNFs”). In some embodiments, supporting VNFs might include, without limitation, at least one of generating VNFs, configuring VNFs, instantiating VNFs, modifying VNFs, sending VNFs to particular network and/or computing locations, bursting VNFs in particular network and/or computing locations, removing VNFs from particular network and/or computing locations, replacing VNFs, providing complementary other VNFs to complement or supplement functions of the VNF, and/or the like.

According to some embodiments, theswitch110 might communicatively couple to two or more of the following components: the at least onetransceiver115, the one ormore client ports120, the one ormore computing systems125a, and/or the one ormore host ports130, and/or the like. In some cases, thetransceiver115 might directly couple with the one ormore computing systems125a. In some embodiments, each of the plurality ofclient ports120 might comprise one of a local area network (“LAN”) port, a Wi-Fi port, an advanced technology attachment (“ATA”) port, a serial ATA (“SATA”) port, an external SATA (“eSATA”) port, a powered eSATA (“eSATAp”) port, a mini SATA (“mSATA”) port, a SATA Express port, a M.2 port, or a universal serial bus (“USB”) port, and/or the like. In some cases, thenetwork switch110 might be an Ethernet switch or a LAN switch that connects one or more LAN segments (typically, but not limited to, one of WiFi and one for the physical LAN ports, and/or the like). In some embodiments, thenetwork switch110 can be a physical switch or a virtual switch. In some cases, thenetwork switch110 might be a virtual network switch that utilizes a network switch VNF to provide network switching functionality. According to some embodiments,gateway device105 might comprise a dynamic host configuration protocol (“DHCP”), which is a client/server protocol that automatically assigns Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses for the LAN so that computing and/or client devices can communicate. The DHCP (which is depicted inFIGS. 2-4 asDHCP210c,310c, and410c, respectively) is a function that can be embodied as a physical component or as a virtual one; in some cases, a DHCP might be a virtual DHCP that utilizes a DHCP VNF to provide DHCP functionality. In some instances, thetransceiver115 might be a virtual transceiver that utilizes a transceiver VNF to provide transceiver functionality.

In some embodiments,system100 might further comprise one ormore client devices135 that may be communicatively coupled to switch110 each via a corresponding client port of the one ormore client ports120. The one ormore client devices135, according to some embodiments, might include, without limitation, a user device including, but not limited to, one of atablet computer135a, asmart phone135b, amobile phone135c, aportable gaming device135d, alaptop computer135e, or a desktop computer135f, and/or the like. In some instances, theclient device135 might comprise adevice135g, including, without limitation, a small form factor pluggable (“SFP”) device, an enhanced SFP (“SFP+”) device, a compact SFP (“CSFP”) device, a gigabit interface converter (“GBIC”), a universal serial bus (“USB”) pluggable device, and/or the like. At least one of the SFP device, the SFP+ device, or the CSFP device might comprise at least one of a SFP network interface device (“NID”), a SFP router, a SFP modem, or a SFP wireless access point, and/or the like. The USB pluggable device might comprise one of a printer, a scanner, a combination printer/scanner device, an external hard drive, a camera, a keyboard, a mouse, a drawing interface device, or a mobile device, and/or the like. For each of theseclient devices135, a corresponding or compatible one or more of the above-mentionedclient ports120 would serve as an interface(s) between the particular client device135 (or type of client device) and thenetwork switch110.

In some cases,system100 might further comprisenetwork140a, which might communicatively couple to thegateway device105 via the at least onetransceiver115, and might also communicatively couple to theInternet140b.System100 might further comprise one or more network functions virtualization (“NFV”) entities and/or a software defined network (“SDN”)controller145. In some embodiments, the one or more NFV entities might include, but are not limited to, at least one of aNFV resource manager150, a network functions virtualization infrastructure (“NFVI”)system155, aNFV orchestrator160, a NFV management and orchestration (“MANO”)system165, aVNF manager170, a virtualized infrastructure manager (“VIM”)175, and/orother NFV entities180, and/or the like. In some cases, theother NFV entities180 might include, without limitation, a virtual machine (“VM”), a macro orchestrator, or a domain orchestrator, and/or the like. As shown inFIG. 1A, multiple NFV entities might communicatively couple with each other (as depicted bydash lines185 interconnecting theNFV resource manager150, theNFVI155, and the NFV orchestrator160 inFIG. 1).

AlthoughFIG. 1A depicts the one or more NFV entity(ies)150-180 as being located in thenetwork140a, the various embodiments are not so limited, and the one or more NFV entity(ies)150-180 may be located in a network (such asnetwork140aor the like), located in thegateway device105, or distributed between both the network and thegateway device105, and/or the like. For example, in some embodiments, the host computing system might host an instantiated network functions virtualization infrastructure (“NFVI”) system. In some instances, the computing system125 might register with the NFV orchestrator160 (or other NFV entity) so that its capabilities are known to the NFV orchestrator160 (or other NFV entity) and/or to theVIM175. According to some embodiments, thenetwork switch110 and the computing system125 are under control of at least one of the one or more NFV entities and/or the SDN controller145 (as indicated by the long-dash lines denoted190 inFIG. 1A). For SDN control, theSDN controller145 might utilize a communications protocol, such as OpenFlow or other protocol, or the like, that gives access to the forwarding plane of a network switch or router over a network.

In some instances, at least one of the SFP device, the SFP+ device, or the CSFP device (collectively, “SFPs”) might be used at not only the client side (as described above), but also at the network side, in which case, the SFPs might interface with corresponding ports in the transceiver, to handle communications or data to or from thenetwork140a. In some cases, on the network side, the SFPs might terminate a direct fiber or a passive optical network (“PON”), which would be at the physical layer of the network. On the client side, the SFPs can be used to connect the physical layer terminating device to the gateway device. In some embodiments, an SFP can also be used in a similar way as a USB port.

Merely by way of example, according to some embodiments, thegateway device105 might include, without limitation, one of a customer premises equipment (“CPE”), a router, a switch, a network element, a demarcation device, a WiFi gateway device, a hypervisor platform, one or more virtual machine-based host machines, and/or the like. In some embodiments, the one or more virtual machine-based host machines might include, without limitation, a kernel-based virtual machine (“KVM”)-based host machine, an ESX-based host machine, an ESXi-based host machine, and/or the like. In some instances, the CPE might include, but is not limited to, at least one of an optical network terminal (“ONT”), a network interface device (“NID”), an enhanced NID (“eNID”), a residential gateway (“RG”) device, a business gateway (“BG”) device, or a virtual gateway (“vG”) device (which could be a vRG, a vBG, or other virtual gateway, and the like). In such cases, the gateway device might be located at or near a customer premises associated with a user of the client device. The NID, in some instances, might be a fiber-fed terminating device, a copper-fed terminating device, or a combination fiber-fed and copper-fed terminating device, and the like. In some embodiments, thegateway device105 might be an integrated device that terminates the physical layer access line and the gateway (e.g., RG, BG, vG, etc.) in one container or box. In some cases, thegateway device105 and/or the one or more computing systems125 might include, without limitation, a VMware Host (which, in some instances, might comprise a bare metal/plastic host or a compute bus on a node, and the like) or a Linux container (as Linux has the ability to create a “virtual host” or soft host as part of the entire NID operating system).

In some cases, thetransceiver115 might comprise a network port (e.g.,port215a,315a, or415a, as shown inFIGS. 2-4, respectively, or the like). In some embodiments, the network port might include, without limitation, a SFP port to which an ONT SFP or a digital subscriber line (“DSL”) Modem SFP might interface, connect, or couple. In such embodiments, the DSL Modem SFP might terminate the physical DSL technologies (sometimes referred to generally as “xDSL”) line or the like. In other embodiments, the ONT SFP might terminate the physical passive optical network or direct point-to-point technologies. Other types of SFP transceivers might also comprise a specific type of transceivers for, but not limited to, wireless transceivers like LTE transceivers, 5G transceivers, and/or the like, or even cable modem transceivers. In some cases, the network port might include at least one of one or more optical SFP ports to which fiber cables can connect with corresponding optical SFP ports on an external ONT, one or more copper cable-based SFP ports to which copper cables can connect with corresponding copper cable-based SFP ports on the external ONT, one or more RJ-45 ports to which copper RJ-45 cables can connect with corresponding RJ-45 ports on the external ONT, and/or the like.

Merely by way of example, in some embodiments, theclient ports120 might each be a very high speed port that can handle traffic frommultiple client devices135, and in fact has to be fast enough in terms of network speed to handle all traffic from the network port (e.g., network DSL port, PON port, or the like), through the externalhost computing system125b, via thegateway device105, and to theclient devices135, and vice versa. For similar reasons, thehost port130 is, in some embodiments, a very high speed port that handles traffic to and from the externalhost computing system125b.

In operation, thenetwork switch110, which is disposed within thegateway device105, might route network traffic to a host computing system125, at least a portion of the network traffic being originally directed to aclient device135 via thenetwork switch110 and via acorresponding client port120 among a plurality ofclient ports120. Based at least in part on one or more characteristics of the at least a portion of the network traffic that is directed to theclient device135, the host computing system125 selects one or more VNFs. In some embodiments, the NFV orchestrator160 or other NFV entity150-180 might send the selected one or more VNFs to the host computing system125, via thenetwork switch110. Alternatively, or additionally, forclient devices135 that are NFV-capable (including, but not limited to, set-top boxes, local Internet of Things (“IoT”) controllers, IoT endpoints, and/or the like), the host computing system125 might send one or more second VNFs (which might be based on the selected one or more VNFs or might be the same as the selected one or more VNFs) to theclient devices135—or otherwise provides theclient devices135 with access to the one or more VNFs—via thenetwork switch110 andcorresponding client port120. In some cases, the one or more characteristics of the received network traffic might comprise at least one of one or more attributes of an Ethernet frame, one or more media access control (“MAC”) source addresses, one or more MAC destination addresses, one or more Internet Protocol (“IP”) source addresses, one or more IP destination addresses, one or more transmission control protocol (“TCP”) source ports, one or more TCP destination ports, one or more priority bits, one or more particular bit patterns, bandwidth of a flow, one or more switch ports, one or more ingress ports, one or more Ethernet type identifiers, one or more virtual local area network (“VLAN”) identifiers, one or more network protocol identifiers, or one or more action instructions, and/or the like.

According to some embodiments, as described above, thenetwork switch110 and the host computing system125 are under control of a NFV entity150-180 and/or aSDN controller145, which provide network enhanced gateway functionalities to the gateway device, as described herein. The network traffic between thenetwork switch110 and the host computing system125, in some embodiments, is at least one of uni-directional network traffic, bi-directional network traffic, or split directional network traffic that originates from at least one of one or more of the plurality ofclient ports120 or one or more network ports (which might couple with the transceiver115). For example, the network traffic might be sent in a uni-directional manner from the network side (i.e., fromnetwork140aand received by transceiver115) to the client side (i.e., to the client device(s)135 via client port120), or vice versa. Alternatively, or additionally, the network traffic might be sent bi-directionally, with some portion of the network traffic flowing from the network side to the client side, and some other portion of the network traffic flowing from the client side to the network side. Alternatively, or additionally, the network traffic might be sent in a split directional manner, in which the network traffic (or a portion thereof) is replicated and directed to more than one destination (where the destination can be at the network side or the client side). The network traffic can originate from either or both of the network side or the client side. In a particular embodiment (or set of embodiments), depending on the VNF being instantiated on the host computing system125, the network traffic can be flowing to/from thenetwork140aand/or to/from thegateway device105, and/or to/from the client device(s)135. For example, a VNF could be a parental control function that blocks certain traffic from coming into thegateway device105 from thenetwork140a. Another VNF may prioritize traffic in either direction. And so on. According to some embodiments, the functions of thenetwork switch110 can be enabled or disabled by the NFV orchestrator160 (or other NFV entity). If the functions of thenetwork switch110 is disabled, the gateway device would function as a traditional or legacy gateway without the ability to run VNFs on thehost computing system125aand/or125b. In other cases, a subscriber-side configuration portal or similar methods may allow a subscriber to disable the functions of the network switch and to cause thegateway device105 to function in traditional or legacy mode. Likewise, the subscriber-side configuration portal or similar methods may allow the subscriber to enable the functions of thenetwork switch110 such that thegateway device105 is able to run VNFs on thehost computing system125aand/or125b.

Merely by way of example, in some embodiments, a customer can load a VNF onto the host compute platform of the computing system125 or download the VNF from thenetwork140a. Alternatively, or additionally, a customer might be provided with access to the VNFs that may exist in the network that he or she is connected to or even third party networks that the customer may have IP connectivity to. For example, a customer may want filtering to occur in the network before network traffic hits his or her access line, to conserve bandwidth on his or her access line, and then execute a local VNF once the filtered traffic traverses the access line. In certain embodiments, the customer might want to service chain VNFs on thegateway device105 with other VNFs that exist on the network. Here, “service chain” or “service chaining” might refer to implementing two or more VNFs to perform a particular function. In such embodiments, it may first be determined whether service chaining is required (e.g., if only one VNF is required, no service chaining is necessary) and, if so, the system (e.g., one or more of the NFV entities150-180) might determine whether it is possible to service chain two or more VNFs together to provide a single network service—including, without limitation, identifying and locating each individual VNF to provide sub-functionalities of the desired network service, managing the VNFs so that they can be service chained together, and/or the like. Based on a determination that service chaining is required and that two or more VNFs can be service chained together to provide a single network service, the two or more VNFs may be service chained together to provide a single network service. In one non-limiting example, four or five VNFs (regardless of which NFV entity each VNF is provided from) might be service chained together to perform the functions of a network router. In similar fashion, any number of VNFs (from any combination of NFV entities) may be service chained to perform any desired or ordered function. Service chaining and the processes outlined above related to service chaining are described in greater detail in the '208, '280, and '309 applications, which have already been incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

According to some embodiments, as described above, the NFV entity might be located in either the network side (e.g., innetwork140a, as shown inFIG. 1A), in the gateway device105 (not shown inFIG. 1A), or both (also not shown inFIG. 1A). For instance, a customer might want to control his or her devices directly, in which case, a portal in the network might be provided to the customer to access. This would mean that the request would go to the network where the VNF controller might act upon the request and might configure VNFs that are local to thegateway device105. Alternatively, or additionally, the customer might be provided with tools to configure his or her local VNFs directly without having to go through a network portal. In one set of examples, a VNF that is a virtual instantiation of a microprocessor or micro-compute resource (such as a Raspberry PI or other similar compute resource, or the like) might provide such functionality, and can be loaded and/or configured by the customer when not connected to the network.

Thegateway device105, as described above, is capable of operating on its own, with thenetwork switch110 serving to provide the in-premises connectivity among computing and/or user devices in the customer premises (i.e., with thenetwork switch110 serving as a LAN switch or the like). In some embodiments, large switch connections (e.g., wide area network (“WAN”)—like connections), uplink type connections, and/or the like, can be added to thenetwork switch110 to act as a service point on the local device (i.e., the gateway device105). In some cases, thegateway device105 can be embodied by a set-top box or the like (or a set-top box can be a client device that couples to thegateway device105 via a client port120), and the large switch connections can feed allclient devices135 that are communicatively coupled to the gateway device105 (or set-top box) via theclient ports120, while providing sufficient, ample, or excess bandwidth, or the like.

FIG. 1B is a schematic diagram illustrating analternative system100′ for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality, in accordance with various embodiments.FIGS. 1A and 1B are collectively referred to as “FIG. 1.” The embodiment ofFIG. 1B is similar or identical to that ofFIG. 1A, except thatsystem100′ ofFIG. 1B further comprises one or morethird party networks140c, which is communicatively coupled to one or both ofnetwork140aand theInternet140b. Each of the one or morethird party networks140cis associated with (i.e., controlled, operated, or owned by) a third party service provider that is different or separate from the service provider associated with thenetwork140a. In some embodiments, at least onethird party network140amight replicate, host, or instantiate content (i.e., data content, media content, VNFs, etc.) that are provided by eithernetwork140aand/or theInternet140b. In this manner, the network enhancedgateway device105 may be serviced (in accordance with the embodiments as described above with respect toFIG. 1 and/or the embodiments as described below with respect toFIGS. 2-5) by network services that can be instantiated on either a private cloud or a public cloud by either the service provider associated withnetwork140aor a third party service provider associated with at least one of thethird party networks140c. In other words, a customer can subscribe to services offered by either the service provider associated with thenetwork140aor one or more third party service providers associated with thethird party network140c, or both. Network traffic can be separated between the multiple networks140 via virtual private networks (“VPNs”) or other network routing mechanisms. In some instances, at least one of thethird party networks140cmight be geographically separate from thenetwork140a(e.g., in a different part of the same country, in different countries in the same continent, or in different countries in different continents, etc.). In such cases, thethird party networks140cmight allow functionalities of thenetwork140a(particularly, with respect to implementation of network enhanced gateway functionality) to be made portable should a customer choose to bring his or her network enhanced gateway device abroad, for example.

The embodiment ofsystem100′ ofFIG. 1B would otherwise function in a similar, if not identical, manner as that ofsystem100 ofFIG. 1A, the descriptions of the various components and functionalities ofsystem100 would be applicable to the descriptions of the various components and functionalities ofsystem100′ ofFIG. 1B.

FIGS. 2-4 depict various embodiments of systems for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality.FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating asystem200 for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality, in accordance with various embodiments. In some embodiments,system200 might provide static host connectivity.FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating asystem300 for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality, in accordance with various embodiments. In some embodiments,system300 might be service-chaining-host-capable.FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating asystem400 for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality, in accordance with various embodiments. In some embodiments,system400, as configured, may be used to provide network enhanced gateway functionality, while allowing for flexible implementation, and thus, in some cases, may be implemented by service providers as a “standard” type of node or platform.

Turning toFIG. 2,system200, according to some embodiments, might comprisegateway device205, which comprisesnetwork switch210,transceiver215, a plurality of client ports220, one ormore computing systems225a, a host port(s)230 communicatively coupled to one or moreexternal computing systems225b, and a routing/network access translation (“NAT”)device295, and/or the like. Thenetwork switch210, in some embodiments, might comprise a network-to-network interface (“NNI”) orNNI LAN210a, a user network interface (“UNI”) orUNI LAN210b, and a dynamic host configuration protocol (“DHCP”)device210c. In some cases, thenetwork switch210, as well as each of the NNI orNNI LAN210a, the UNI orUNI LAN210b, and theDHCP210c, might be virtual components that utilize VNFs or the like to provide the network switch functionality, as well as the NNI or NNI LAN functionality, the UNI or UNI LAN functionality, and the DHCP functionality.

In some embodiments, thetransceiver215 might comprise anetwork port215a, which (as described above) might provide physical port connections. In some cases, thetransceiver215 might be a virtual component that utilizes VNFs or the like to provide transceiver functionality. The plurality of client ports, in some instances, might comprise at least one of one ormore LAN ports220a, one or more Wi-Fi ports220b, one ormore port controllers220c, one or more advanced technology attachment (“ATA”)ports220d, one or more universal serial bus (“USB”)ports220e, and/or the like. In some cases, the one ormore ATA ports220dmight each include, without limitation, a serial ATA (“SATA”) port, an external SATA (“eSATA”) port, a powered eSATA (“eSATAp”) port, a mini SATA (“mSATA”) port, a SATA Express port, and/or the like. Theport controller220c, in some embodiments, might control theATA ports220dand theUSB ports220e, and/or might otherwise serve as an interface between theUNI210bof thenetwork switch210 and each of theATA ports220dand theUSB ports220e.

System200 might further comprise one or more client devices235a-235n(collectively, “client devices235”), which each communicatively couples to one of the client ports220. Thenetwork port215acommunicatively couples withnetwork240, receives network traffic from thenetwork240 to the gateway device205 (and ultimately to the client device(s)235), and sends network traffic to thenetwork240 from the gateway device205 (and originally from the client device(s)235).

In some embodiments, each of the one ormore computing systems225aand/or the one or moreexternal computing systems225b(collectively, “host computing systems225”) might be controlled by one or both of SDN controller(s)245 and/or one or more NFV entities250 (denoted bylong dash lines290 connecting the SDN controller(s)245 with each host computing system225 and also connecting the one ormore NFV entities250 with each host computing system225).

In operation, network traffic from thenetwork240 might be received bytransceiver215 vianetwork port215a.Transceiver215 might communicate with the NNI orNNI LAN210aof the network switch via the routing/NAT device295 (which might be a virtual routing/NAT component that utilizes VNFs to provide routing/NAT functionality) (as depicted by the bold double-headed solid arrows inFIG. 2). The routing/NAT function/device295 might communicate with thecomputing system225a(as depicted by the bold, double-headed short dash arrow inFIG. 2) to route network traffic from the transceiver to the NNI orNNI LAN210aof thenetwork switch225a, through thenetwork switch210, via the UNI orUNI LAN210band via one or more of the plurality of client ports, to corresponding one or more client devices235 (as depicted by the bold, single-headed dash arrows inFIG. 2). Alternatively or additionally, the network traffic might be routed from thetransceiver215, through the routing/NAT function/device295, via the NNI orNNI LAN210aand viahost port230, to the one or moreexternal computing systems225b, back from the one or moreexternal computing systems225bto the NNI orNNI LAN210a, through thenetwork switch210, via the UNI orUNI LAN210band via one or more of the plurality of client ports, to corresponding one or more client devices235 (as depicted by the bold, single-headed dash arrows inFIG. 2). AlthoughFIG. 2 shows a single direction (particularly, from thetransceiver215 to thecomputing system225ato the NNI orNNI LAN210a), the various embodiments are not so limited, and network traffic may flow uni-directionally from/to thenetwork240 to/from the client device(s)235 via thenetwork switch210 and other components, bi-directionally from/to thenetwork240 to/from the client device(s)235 via thenetwork switch210 and other components, and split-directionally from/to thenetwork240 to/from the client device(s)235 via thenetwork switch210 and other components, and/or the like (as described above with respect toFIG. 1).

According to some embodiments, when a host computing system (or a host port) is added to the gateway device, the host can be handed over to a NFV Orchestrator (“NFVO”) or other NFV entity for VNF life cycle management and/or for service management. In such a case, the “network configuration” of the gateway device might not pass to the NFVO or other NFV entity. Only the host is passed to the NFVO or other NFV entity, in which case its configuration may be limited in terms of changing the service path (i.e., NFV forwarding graph flexibility may be limited), resulting in a “host-on-a-stick” configuration.

InFIG. 2,gateway device205,network switch210,transceiver215, client ports220, computing system(s)225a, computing system(s)225b,host port230, client device(s)235,network240, SDN controller(s)245,NVF entities250 ofsystem200 might correspond to (and are otherwise similar, if not identical, to)gateway device105,network switch110,transceiver115,client ports120, computing system(s)115a, computing system(s)115b,host port130, client device(s)135,network140a,140b, and/or140c, SDN controller(s)145,NVF entities150 orsystem100, respectively, and the descriptions of these components ofsystem100 similarly apply to the corresponding components ofsystem200. The operation ofsystem200 is otherwise similar, if not identical, to that ofsystem100, as described in detail above.

With reference toFIG. 3,system300, according to some embodiments, might comprisegateway device305, which comprisesnetwork switch310,transceiver315, a plurality of client ports320, one ormore computing systems325a, a host port(s)330 communicatively coupled to one or moreexternal computing systems325b, and a routing/network access translation (“NAT”)device395, and/or the like. Thenetwork switch310, in some embodiments, might comprise a network-to-network interface (“NNI”) orNNI LAN310a, a user network interface (“UNI”) orUNI LAN310b, and a dynamic host configuration protocol (“DHCP”)device310c. In some cases, thenetwork switch310, as well as each of the NNI orNNI LAN310a, the UNI orUNI LAN310b, and theDHCP310c, might be virtual components that utilize VNFs or the like to provide the network switch functionality, as well as the NNI or NNI LAN functionality, the UNI or UNI LAN functionality, and the DHCP functionality.

In some embodiments, thetransceiver315 might comprise anetwork port315a, which (as described above) might provide physical port connections. In some cases, thetransceiver315 might be a virtual component that utilizes VNFs or the like to provide transceiver functionality. The plurality of client ports, in some instances, might comprise at least one of one ormore LAN ports320a, one or more Wi-Fi ports320b, one ormore port controllers320c, one or more advanced technology attachment (“ATA”)ports320d, one or more universal serial bus (“USB”)ports320e, and/or the like. In some cases, the one ormore ATA ports320dmight each include, without limitation, a serial ATA (“SATA”) port, an external SATA (“eSATA”) port, a powered eSATA (“eSATAp”) port, a mini SATA (“mSATA”) port, a SATA Express port, and/or the like. Theport controller320c, in some embodiments, might control theATA ports320dand theUSB ports320e, and/or might otherwise serve as an interface between theUNI310bof thenetwork switch310 and each of theATA ports320dand theUSB ports320e.

System300 might further comprise one or more client devices335a-335n(collectively, “client devices335”), which each communicatively couples to one of the client ports320. Thenetwork port315acommunicatively couples withnetwork340, receives network traffic from thenetwork340 to the gateway device305 (and ultimately to the client device(s)335), and sends network traffic to thenetwork340 from the gateway device305 (and originally from the client device(s)335).

In some embodiments, each of the one ormore computing systems325a, the one or moreexternal computing systems325b(collectively, “host computing systems325”), and/or thenetwork switch310 might be controlled by one or both of SDN controller(s)345 and/or one or more NFV entities350 (denoted bylong dash lines390 connecting the SDN controller(s)345 with each host computing system325 and thenetwork switch310, and also connecting the one ormore NFV entities350 with each host computing system325 and the network switch310).

In operation, network traffic from thenetwork340 might be received bytransceiver315 vianetwork port315a.Transceiver315 might communicate with the NNI orNNI LAN310aof the network switch via the routing/NAT device395 (which might be a virtual routing/NAT component that utilizes VNFs to provide routing/NAT functionality) (as depicted by the bold double-headed solid arrows inFIG. 3). Unlike the routing/NAT function/device295 ofFIG. 2, the routing/NAT function/device395 does not directly communicate with thecomputing system325a. Rather, the routing/NAT function/device395 communicates with the computing system(s)325avia the NNI orNNI LAN310a(as depicted by the bold, double-headed short dash arrow inFIG. 3) to route network traffic from the transceiver to the NNI orNNI LAN310a, to one or both of the one ormore computing systems325aand/or the one or moreexternal computing systems325b(via host port330) (as depicted by the bold, single-headed dash arrows inFIG. 3) through thenetwork switch310, via the UNI orUNI LAN310band via one or more of the plurality of client ports, to corresponding one or more client devices335. AlthoughFIG. 3 shows a single direction (particularly, from thetransceiver315 to the NNI orNNI LAN310a), the various embodiments are not so limited, and network traffic may flow uni-directionally from/to thenetwork340 to/from the client device(s)335 via thenetwork switch310 and other components, bi-directionally from/to thenetwork340 to/from the client device(s)335 via thenetwork switch310 and other components, and split-directionally from/to thenetwork340 to/from the client device(s)335 via thenetwork switch310 and other components, and/or the like (as described above with respect toFIG. 1).

According to some embodiments, thesystem300 might provide a platform that is fully flexible and map-able. For example, in some embodiments, a top of rack (“TOR”) and/or an end of row (“EOR”) switch might be added to the orchestration. In some cases, once the node is “handed over” from the network configuration system to the orchestrator with some default configuration that allows the customer to start up, the NFVO or other NFV entity might take full control of the node to map both the WAN and the LAN side connections to the VNF manager in both serial and parallel connectivity functions, thereby providing full NFV service management.

InFIG. 3,gateway device305,network switch310,transceiver315, client ports320, computing system(s)325a, computing system(s)325b,host port330, client device(s)335,network340, SDN controller(s)345,NVF entities350 ofsystem300 might correspond to (and are otherwise similar, if not identical, to)gateway device105,network switch110,transceiver115,client ports120, computing system(s)115a, computing system(s)115b,host port130, client device(s)135,network140a,140b, and/or140c, SDN controller(s)145,NVF entities150 orsystem100, respectively, and the descriptions of these components ofsystem100 similarly apply to the corresponding components ofsystem300. The operation ofsystem300 is otherwise similar, if not identical, to that ofsystem100, as described in detail above.

With reference toFIG. 4,system400, according to some embodiments, might comprisegateway device405, which comprisesnetwork switch410,transceiver415, a plurality of client ports420, one ormore computing systems425a, a host port(s)430 communicatively coupled to one or moreexternal computing systems425b, and/or the like. Thenetwork switch410, in some embodiments, might comprise a network-to-network interface (“NNI”) orNNI LAN410a, a user network interface (“UNI”) orUNI LAN410b, and a dynamic host configuration protocol (“DHCP”)device410c. In some cases, thenetwork switch410, as well as each of the NNI orNNI LAN410a, the UNI orUNI LAN410b, and theDHCP410c, might be virtual components that utilize VNFs or the like to provide the network switch functionality, as well as the NNI or NNI LAN functionality, the UNI or UNI LAN functionality, and the DHCP functionality.

In some embodiments, thetransceiver415 might comprise anetwork port415a, which (as described above) might provide physical port connections. In some cases, thetransceiver415 might be a virtual component that utilizes VNFs or the like to provide transceiver functionality. The plurality of client ports, in some instances, might comprise at least one of one ormore LAN ports420a, one or more Wi-Fi ports420b, one ormore port controllers420c, one or more advanced technology attachment (“ATA”)ports420d, one or more universal serial bus (“USB”)ports420e, and/or the like. In some cases, the one ormore ATA ports420dmight each include, without limitation, a serial ATA (“SATA”) port, an external SATA (“eSATA”) port, a powered eSATA (“eSATAp”) port, a mini SATA (“mSATA”) port, a SATA Express port, and/or the like. Theport controller420c, in some embodiments, might control theATA ports420dand theUSB ports420e, and/or might otherwise serve as an interface between theUNI410bof thenetwork switch410 and each of theATA ports420dand theUSB ports420e.

System400 might further comprise one or more client devices435a-435n(collectively, “client devices435”), which each communicatively couples to one of the client ports420. Thenetwork port415acommunicatively couples withnetwork440, receives network traffic from thenetwork440 to the gateway device405 (and ultimately to the client device(s)435), and sends network traffic to thenetwork440 from the gateway device405 (and originally from the client device(s)435).

In some embodiments, each of the one ormore computing systems425a, the one or moreexternal computing systems425b(collectively, “host computing systems425”), and/or thenetwork switch410 might be controlled by one or both of SDN controller(s)445 and/or one or more NFV entities450 (denoted bylong dash lines490 connecting the SDN controller(s)445 with each host computing system425 and thenetwork switch410, and also connecting the one ormore NFV entities450 with each host computing system425 and the network switch410).

In operation, network traffic from thenetwork440 might be received bytransceiver415 vianetwork port415a. Insystem400 ofFIG. 4, the routing/NAT function/device295 and395 ofsystems200 and300, respectively, are incorporated within thenetwork switch410 and/or the NNI orNNI LAN410a, thereby streamlining network traffic routing. Thus, unlikesystems200 and300,transceiver415 might communicate with the NNI orNNI LAN410aof the network switch directly (as depicted by the bold, solid double-headed arrow inFIG. 4) to route network traffic from the transceiver to the NNI orNNI LAN410a, to one or both of the one ormore computing systems425aand/or the one or moreexternal computing systems425b(via host port430) (as depicted by the bold, single-headed dash arrows inFIG. 4) through thenetwork switch410, via the UNI orUNI LAN410band via one or more of the plurality of client ports, to corresponding one or more client devices435. In some cases, the NNI orNNI LAN410amight communicate with the computing system(s)425ato perform the routing function (as depicted by the bold, double-headed short dash arrow inFIG. 4). AlthoughFIG. 4 shows a single direction (particularly, from thetransceiver415 to the NNI orNNI LAN410a), the various embodiments are not so limited, and network traffic may flow uni-directionally from/to thenetwork440 to/from the client device(s)435 via thenetwork switch410 and other components, bi-directionally from/to thenetwork440 to/from the client device(s)435 via thenetwork switch410 and other components, and split-directionally from/to thenetwork440 to/from the client device(s)435 via thenetwork switch410 and other components, and/or the like (as described above with respect toFIG. 1).

According to some embodiments, as described above,system400, as configured, may be used to provide network enhanced gateway functionality, while allowing for flexible implementation, and thus, in some cases, may be implemented by service providers as a “standard” type of node or platform. In some embodiments, SDN controller(s)445 and/or theNFV entities450 might control thenetwork switch410 to route network traffic to/from transceiver415 (fromnetwork440 vianetwork port415a), via NNI orNNI LAN410aand one or both of the one ormore computing systems425aand/or the one or moreexternal computing systems425b(via host port430), to/from at least one of the plurality of client devices435 (via UNI orUNI LAN410band via corresponding at least one client port420). In some cases, for at least the portion of the network traffic being directed to the client device(s)435, based on the characteristics of the at least the portion of the network traffic—including, but not limited to, at least one of one or more attributes of an Ethernet frame, one or more media access control (“MAC”) source addresses, one or more MAC destination addresses, one or more Internet Protocol (“IP”) source addresses, one or more IP destination addresses, one or more transmission control protocol (“TCP”) source ports, one or more TCP destination ports, one or more priority bits, one or more particular bit patterns, bandwidth of a flow, one or more switch ports, one or more ingress ports, one or more Ethernet type identifiers, one or more virtual local area network (“VLAN”) identifiers, one or more network protocol identifiers, or one or more action instructions, and/or the like—, the SDN controller(s)445 and/or the NFV entities450 might control the host computing system(s)425aand/or425bto select one or more VNFs, and to send the selected VNFs to the host computing system(s)425aand/or425bvia the network switch410, to the particular client device(s)435 via the network switch410 (and via the UNI or UNI LAN410band the corresponding client port(s)420), or both, or to otherwise provide the host computing system(s)425aand/or425band/or the particular client device(s)435 with access to the selected VNFs. In some instances, the selected VNFs might be selected and sent to the network switch410 (or access to the selected VNFs might otherwise be provided to the network switch410). The selected VNFs might provide the particular client device(s)425 (and/or or other component, including, but not limited to, thenetwork switch410, the one or more computing systems425, thetransceiver415, thehost port430, the client port(s)420, and/or the like) with one or more functions. In some embodiments, the one or more functions might include, without limitation, at least one of an activation function, an operation function, a deletion function, a specialized function, a firewall function, an Internet of Things (“IoT”) proxy function, an application-related function, or an operations, administration, and management (“OAM”) function, and/or the like. In some cases, the specialized function might itself be a VNF.

InFIG. 4,gateway device405,network switch410,transceiver415, client ports420, computing system(s)425a, computing system(s)425b,host port430, client device(s)435,network440, SDN controller(s)445,NVF entities450 ofsystem400 might correspond to (and are otherwise similar, if not identical, to)gateway device105,network switch110,transceiver115,client ports120, computing system(s)115a, computing system(s)115b,host port130, client device(s)135,network140a,140b, and/or140c, SDN controller(s)145,NVF entities150 orsystem100, respectively, and the descriptions of these components ofsystem100 similarly apply to the corresponding components ofsystem400. The operation ofsystem400 is otherwise similar, if not identical, to that ofsystem100, as described in detail above.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating amethod500 for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality, in accordance with various embodiments. While the techniques and procedures are depicted and/or described in a certain order for purposes of illustration, it should be appreciated that certain procedures may be reordered and/or omitted within the scope of various embodiments. Moreover, while themethod500 illustrated byFIG. 5 can be implemented by or with (and, in some cases, are described below with respect to) thesystems100,200,300, and400 ofFIGS. 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively (or components thereof), such methods may also be implemented using any suitable hardware (or software) implementation. Similarly, while each of thesystems100,200,300, and400 ofFIGS. 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively (or components thereof), can operate according to themethod500 illustrated byFIG. 5 (e.g., by executing instructions embodied on a computer readable medium), thesystems100,200,300, and400 ofFIGS. 1, 2, 3, and 4 can each also operate according to other modes of operation and/or perform other suitable procedures.

InFIG. 5,method500, atblock505 might comprise receiving, with a network switch (e.g.,network switch110,210,310, and/or410 ofFIGS. 1-4, or the like), network traffic. At least a portion of the network traffic might be (originally) directed to a client device (e.g.,client device135,235,335, and/or435 ofFIGS. 1-4, or the like) via the network switch and corresponding client port among a plurality of client ports (e.g.,client port120,220,320, and/or420 ofFIGS. 1-4, or the like). In some cases, the client device might comprise a user device including, without limitation, one of a tablet computer, a smart phone, a mobile phone, a portable gaming device, a laptop computer, or a desktop computer, and/or the like. Alternatively, the client device might include, but is not limited to, a device selected from a group consisting of a small form factor pluggable (“SFP”) device, an enhanced SFP (“SFP+”) device, a compact SFP (“CSFP”) device, a gigabit interface converter (“GBIC”), and a universal serial bus (“USB”) pluggable device, and/or the like. In some cases, at least one of the SFP device, the SFP+ device, or the CSFP device might include, without limitation, at least one of a SFP network interface device (“NID”), a SFP router, a SFP modem, or a SFP wireless access point. The USB pluggable device, in some instances, might include, but is not limited to, one of a printer, a scanner, a combination printer/scanner device, an external hard drive, a camera, a keyboard, a mouse, a drawing interface device, or a mobile device, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, each of the client ports might include, without limitation, one of a local area network (“LAN”) port, a Wi-Fi port, an advanced technology attachment (“ATA”) port, a serial ATA (“SATA”) port, an external SATA (“eSATA”) port, a powered eSATA (“eSATAp”) port, a mini SATA (“mSATA”) port, a SATA Express port, a M.2 port, or a universal serial bus (“USB”) port, and/or the like. The network traffic between the network switch and the host computing system, in some embodiments, is at least one of uni-directional network traffic, bi-directional network traffic, or split directional network traffic that originates from at least one of one or more of the plurality of client ports or one or more network ports. In some instances, the network switch is a virtual network switch that utilizes a network switch VNF to provide network switching functionality. In some cases, the network switch might include at least one NNI or NNI LAN and at least one UNI or UNI LAN (e.g., NNI orNNI LAN210a,310a, and410aofFIGS. 2-4, respectively, and UNI orUNI LAN210b,310b, and410bofFIGS. 2-4, respectively), the NNI or NNI or NNI LAN receiving the network traffic and communicatively coupling with the host computing system, while the UNI or UNI or UNI LAN communicatively coupling with the client device via the corresponding client port of the plurality of client ports.

Atblock510,method500 might comprise routing, with the network switch, the network traffic to a host computing system. In some embodiments, the network switch and the host computing system are under control of a network functions virtualization (“NFV”) entity, which might include, without limitation, at least one of a NFV orchestrator, a network functions virtualization infrastructure (“NFVI”) system, a NFV management and orchestration (“MANO”) system, a VNF manager, a NFV resource manager, a virtualized infrastructure manager (“VIM”), a virtual machine (“VM”), a macro orchestrator, or a domain orchestrator, and/or the like. In some cases, the host computing system and the network switch might be disposed within a single gateway device. Alternatively, the host computing system might be located external to a gateway device in which the network switch is disposed, the gateway device comprises a host port, and the host computing system communicatively couples to the network switch via the host port. In other alternative embodiments, one or more first host computing systems might be co-located with the network switch within the single gateway device, while one or more second host computing systems might be located external to the single gateway device and might communicatively couple to the network switch via the host port.

Merely by way of example, the host computing system might include, without limitation, an x86 host computing device, an ARM computing device, or both. In some embodiments, the host computing system might include, but is not limited to, one or more computing cores (preferably, two or more computing cores). In some cases, at least one first computing core might perform functions of a gateway device, while at least one second computing core might perform hypervisor functions to support VNFs.

According to some embodiments, the gateway device, in which the switch is disposed, might be selected from a group consisting of a customer premises equipment (“CPE”), a router, a switch, a network element, a demarcation device, a WiFi gateway device, a hypervisor platform, and one or more virtual machine-based host machines (which might include, without limitation, a kernel-based virtual machine (“KVM”)-based host machine, an ESX-based host machine, an ESXi-based host machine, and/or the like), and/or the like. In some cases, the CPE might include, but is not limited to, one of a gateway device comprising at least one of an optical network terminal (“ONT”), a network interface device (“NID”), an enhanced NID (“eNID”), a residential gateway (“RG”) device, a business gateway (“BG”) device, or a virtual gateway (“vG”) device, and/or the like, and the gateway device might be located at or near a customer premises associated with a user of the client device. The NID, in some instances, might be a fiber-fed terminating device, a copper-fed terminating device, or a combination fiber-fed and copper-fed terminating device, and the like. In some embodiments, thegateway device105 might be an integrated device that terminates the physical layer access line and the gateway (e.g., RG, BG, vG, etc.) in one container or box. In some cases, thegateway device105 and/or the one or more computing systems125 might include, without limitation, a VMware Host (which, in some instances, might comprise a bare metal/plastic host or a compute bus on a node, and the like) or a Linux container (as Linux has the ability to create a “virtual host” or soft host as part of the entire NID operating system).

Method500 might further comprise, atblock515, selecting, with the host computing system, one or more virtual network functions (“VNFs”), based at least in part on one or more characteristics of the received network traffic. According to some embodiments, the one or more characteristics of the received network traffic might include, but are not limited to, at least one of one or more attributes of an Ethernet frame, one or more media access control (“MAC”) source addresses, one or more MAC destination addresses, one or more Internet Protocol (“IP”) source addresses, one or more IP destination addresses, one or more transmission control protocol (“TCP”) source ports, one or more TCP destination ports, one or more priority bits, one or more particular bit patterns, bandwidth of a flow, one or more switch ports, one or more ingress ports, one or more Ethernet type identifiers, one or more virtual local area network (“VLAN”) identifiers, one or more network protocol identifiers, or one or more action instructions, and/or the like. In some cases, the one or more VNFs might provide the client device (or other component, including, but not limited to, the network switch, the one or more computing systems, the transceiver, the host port, the client port(s), and/or the like) with one or more functions, the one or more functions including, without limitation, at least one of an activation function, an operation function, a deletion function, a specialized function, a firewall function, an Internet of Things (“IoT”) proxy function, an application-related function, or an operations, administration, and management (“OAM”) function, and/or the like. Atblock520,method500 might comprise sending the one or more VNFs to the host computing system, in some cases, based at least in part on the one or more characteristics of the received network traffic.

In some embodiments, selecting the one or more VNFs might comprise selecting, with the host computing system, at least one VNF of the one or more VNFs, based at least in part on one or more characteristics of the at least a portion of the network traffic that is directed to the client device (optional block525). Atoptional block530,method500 might further comprise sending, with the host computing system and via the network switch and the corresponding client port, the selected at least one VNF to the client device (e.g., a VNF-capable device, including, but not limited to, a set-top box, a local IoT controller, an IoT endpoint, and/or the like). According to some embodiments, sending, with the host computing system and via the network switch and the corresponding client port, the selected at least one VNF to the client device might comprise bursting, using an application programming interface (“API”), the at least one VNF from the NFV entity to the client device (optional block535). In some embodiments, sending, with the host computing system and via the network switch and the corresponding client port, the selected at least one VNF to the client device might comprise otherwise providing the client device with access to the selected at least one VNF.

Exemplary System and Hardware Implementation

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary computer or system hardware architecture, in accordance with various embodiments.FIG. 6 provides a schematic illustration of one embodiment of acomputer system600 of the service provider system hardware that can perform the methods provided by various other embodiments, as described herein, and/or can perform the functions of computer or hardware system (i.e., software defined network (“SDN”)controllers145,245,345, and445, network functions virtualization (“NFV”) entities (including, but not limited to,NFV resource manager150, NFV Infrastructure (“NFVI”)system155, NFV orchestrator160, NFV management and orchestration (“MANO”) architectural framework orsystem165, virtual network function (“VNF”)manager170, virtual infrastructure manager (“VIM”)175,other NFV entities180,NFV entities250,350, and450, and/or the like),gateway devices105,205,305, and405, switches110,210,310, and410, computing systems125,225,325, and425, andclient devices135,235,335, and435, etc.), as described above. It should be noted thatFIG. 6 is meant only to provide a generalized illustration of various components, of which one or more (or none) of each may be utilized as appropriate.FIG. 6, therefore, broadly illustrates how individual system elements may be implemented in a relatively separated or relatively more integrated manner.

The computer orhardware system600—which might represent an embodiment of the computer or hardware system (i.e.,SDN controllers145,245,345, and445, NFV entities (including, but not limited to,NFV resource manager150,NFVI system155, NFV orchestrator160, NFV MANO architectural framework orsystem165,VNF manager170,VIM175,other NFV entities180,NFV entities250,350, and450, and/or the like),gateway devices105,205,305, and405, switches110,210,310, and410, computing systems125,225,325, and425, andclient devices135,235,335, and435, etc.), described above with respect toFIGS. 1-4—is shown comprising hardware elements that can be electrically coupled via a bus605 (or may otherwise be in communication, as appropriate). The hardware elements may include one ormore processors610, including, without limitation, one or more general-purpose processors and/or one or more special-purpose processors (such as microprocessors, digital signal processing chips, graphics acceleration processors, and/or the like); one ormore input devices615, which can include, without limitation, a mouse, a keyboard, and/or the like; and one ormore output devices620, which can include, without limitation, a display device, a printer, and/or the like.

The computer orhardware system600 may further include (and/or be in communication with) one ormore storage devices625, which can comprise, without limitation, local and/or network accessible storage, and/or can include, without limitation, a disk drive, a drive array, an optical storage device, solid-state storage device such as a random access memory (“RAM”) and/or a read-only memory (“ROM”), which can be programmable, flash-updateable, and/or the like. Such storage devices may be configured to implement any appropriate data stores, including, without limitation, various file systems, database structures, and/or the like.

The computer orhardware system600 might also include acommunications subsystem630, which can include, without limitation, a modem, a network card (wireless or wired), an infra-red communication device, a wireless communication device and/or chipset (such as a Bluetooth™ device, an 802.11 device, a WiFi device, a WiMax device, a WWAN device, cellular communication facilities, etc.), and/or the like. Thecommunications subsystem630 may permit data to be exchanged with a network (such as the network described below, to name one example), with other computer or hardware systems, and/or with any other devices described herein. In many embodiments, the computer orhardware system600 will further comprise a workingmemory635, which can include a RAM or ROM device, as described above.

The computer orhardware system600 also may comprise software elements, shown as being currently located within the workingmemory635, including anoperating system640, device drivers, executable libraries, and/or other code, such as one ormore application programs645, which may comprise computer programs provided by various embodiments (including, without limitation, hypervisors, VMs, and the like), and/or may be designed to implement methods, and/or configure systems, provided by other embodiments, as described herein. Merely by way of example, one or more procedures described with respect to the method(s) discussed above might be implemented as code and/or instructions executable by a computer (and/or a processor within a computer); in an aspect, then, such code and/or instructions can be used to configure and/or adapt a general purpose computer (or other device) to perform one or more operations in accordance with the described methods.

A set of these instructions and/or code might be encoded and/or stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, such as the storage device(s)625 described above. In some cases, the storage medium might be incorporated within a computer system, such as thesystem600. In other embodiments, the storage medium might be separate from a computer system (i.e., a removable medium, such as a compact disc, etc.), and/or provided in an installation package, such that the storage medium can be used to program, configure, and/or adapt a general purpose computer with the instructions/code stored thereon. These instructions might take the form of executable code, which is executable by the computer orhardware system600 and/or might take the form of source and/or installable code, which, upon compilation and/or installation on the computer or hardware system600 (e.g., using any of a variety of generally available compilers, installation programs, compression/decompression utilities, etc.) then takes the form of executable code.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that substantial variations may be made in accordance with specific requirements. For example, customized hardware (such as programmable logic controllers, field-programmable gate arrays, application-specific integrated circuits, and/or the like) might also be used, and/or particular elements might be implemented in hardware, software (including portable software, such as applets, etc.), or both. Further, connection to other computing devices such as network input/output devices may be employed.

As mentioned above, in one aspect, some embodiments may employ a computer or hardware system (such as the computer or hardware system600) to perform methods in accordance with various embodiments of the invention. According to a set of embodiments, some or all of the procedures of such methods are performed by the computer orhardware system600 in response toprocessor610 executing one or more sequences of one or more instructions (which might be incorporated into theoperating system640 and/or other code, such as an application program645) contained in the workingmemory635. Such instructions may be read into the workingmemory635 from another computer readable medium, such as one or more of the storage device(s)625. Merely by way of example, execution of the sequences of instructions contained in the workingmemory635 might cause the processor(s)610 to perform one or more procedures of the methods described herein.

The terms “machine readable medium” and “computer readable medium,” as used herein, refer to any medium that participates in providing data that causes a machine to operate in a specific fashion. In an embodiment implemented using the computer orhardware system600, various computer readable media might be involved in providing instructions/code to processor(s)610 for execution and/or might be used to store and/or carry such instructions/code (e.g., as signals). In many implementations, a computer readable medium is a non-transitory, physical, and/or tangible storage medium. In some embodiments, a computer readable medium may take many forms, including, but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, or the like. Non-volatile media includes, for example, optical and/or magnetic disks, such as the storage device(s)625. Volatile media includes, without limitation, dynamic memory, such as the workingmemory635. In some alternative embodiments, a computer readable medium may take the form of transmission media, which includes, without limitation, coaxial cables, copper wire and fiber optics, including the wires that comprise thebus605, as well as the various components of the communication subsystem630 (and/or the media by which thecommunications subsystem630 provides communication with other devices). In an alternative set of embodiments, transmission media can also take the form of waves (including, without limitation, radio, acoustic, and/or light waves, such as those generated during radio-wave and infra-red data communications).

Common forms of physical and/or tangible computer readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, a hard disk, magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, a carrier wave as described hereinafter, or any other medium from which a computer can read instructions and/or code.

Various forms of computer readable media may be involved in carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions to the processor(s)610 for execution. Merely by way of example, the instructions may initially be carried on a magnetic disk and/or optical disc of a remote computer. A remote computer might load the instructions into its dynamic memory and send the instructions as signals over a transmission medium to be received and/or executed by the computer orhardware system600. These signals, which might be in the form of electromagnetic signals, acoustic signals, optical signals, and/or the like, are all examples of carrier waves on which instructions can be encoded, in accordance with various embodiments of the invention.

The communications subsystem630 (and/or components thereof) generally will receive the signals, and thebus605 then might carry the signals (and/or the data, instructions, etc. carried by the signals) to the workingmemory635, from which the processor(s)605 retrieves and executes the instructions. The instructions received by the workingmemory635 may optionally be stored on astorage device625 either before or after execution by the processor(s)610.

As noted above, a set of embodiments comprises methods and systems for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality, and, in particular embodiments, to methods, systems, apparatus, and computer software for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality using network functions virtualization (“NFV”) and/or software defined networks (“SDNs”).FIG. 7 illustrates a schematic diagram of asystem700 that can be used in accordance with one set of embodiments. Thesystem700 can include one or more user computers, user devices, or customer devices705. A user computer, user device, or customer device705 can be a general purpose personal computer (including, merely by way of example, desktop computers, tablet computers, laptop computers, handheld computers, and the like, running any appropriate operating system, several of which are available from vendors such as Apple, Microsoft Corp., and the like), cloud computing devices, a server(s), and/or a workstation computer(s) running any of a variety of commercially-available UNIX™ or UNIX-like operating systems. A user computer, user device, or customer device705 can also have any of a variety of applications, including one or more applications configured to perform methods provided by various embodiments (as described above, for example), as well as one or more office applications, database client and/or server applications, and/or web browser applications. Alternatively, a user computer, user device, or customer device705 can be any other electronic device, such as a thin-client computer, Internet-enabled mobile telephone, and/or personal digital assistant, capable of communicating via a network (e.g., the network(s)710 described below) and/or of displaying and navigating web pages or other types of electronic documents. Although theexemplary system700 is shown with two user computers, user devices, or customer devices705, any number of user computers, user devices, or customer devices can be supported.

Certain embodiments operate in a networked environment, which can include a network(s)710. The network(s)710 can be any type of network familiar to those skilled in the art that can support data communications using any of a variety of commercially-available (and/or free or proprietary) protocols, including, without limitation, TCP/IP, SNA™, IPX™, AppleTalk™, and the like. Merely by way of example, the network(s)710 (similar tonetwork140a,140b, and/or140c,240,340, or440 ofFIGS. 1-4, respectively, or the like) can each include a local area network (“LAN”), including, without limitation, a fiber network, an Ethernet network, a Token-Ring™ network, and/or the like; a wide-area network (“WAN”); a wireless wide area network (“WWAN”); a virtual network, such as a virtual private network (“VPN”); the Internet; an intranet; an extranet; a public switched telephone network (“PSTN”); an infra-red network; a wireless network, including, without limitation, a network operating under any of the IEEE 802.11 suite of protocols, the Bluetooth™ protocol known in the art, and/or any other wireless protocol; and/or any combination of these and/or other networks. In a particular embodiment, the network might include an access network of the service provider (e.g., an Internet service provider (“ISP”)). In another embodiment, the network might include a core network of the service provider, and/or the Internet.

Embodiments can also include one or more server computers715. Each of the server computers715 may be configured with an operating system, including, without limitation, any of those discussed above, as well as any commercially (or freely) available server operating systems. Each of the servers715 may also be running one or more applications, which can be configured to provide services to one or more clients705 and/or other servers715.

Merely by way of example, one of the servers715 might be a data server, a web server, a cloud computing device(s), or the like, as described above. The data server might include (or be in communication with) a web server, which can be used, merely by way of example, to process requests for web pages or other electronic documents from user computers705. The web server can also run a variety of server applications, including HTTP servers, FTP servers, CGI servers, database servers, Java servers, and the like. In some embodiments of the invention, the web server may be configured to serve web pages that can be operated within a web browser on one or more of the user computers705 to perform methods of the invention.

The server computers715, in some embodiments, might include one or more application servers, which can be configured with one or more applications accessible by a client running on one or more of the client computers705 and/or other servers715. Merely by way of example, the server(s)715 can be one or more general purpose computers capable of executing programs or scripts in response to the user computers705 and/or other servers715, including, without limitation, web applications (which might, in some cases, be configured to perform methods provided by various embodiments). Merely by way of example, a web application can be implemented as one or more scripts or programs written in any suitable programming language, such as Java™, C, C#™ or C++, and/or any scripting language, such as Perl, Python, or TCL, as well as combinations of any programming and/or scripting languages. The application server(s) can also include database servers, including, without limitation, those commercially available from Oracle™, Microsoft™, Sybase™, IBM™, and the like, which can process requests from clients (including, depending on the configuration, dedicated database clients, API clients, web browsers, etc.) running on a user computer, user device, or customer device705 and/or another server715. In some embodiments, an application server can perform one or more of the processes for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality, and, in particular embodiments, to methods, systems, apparatus, and computer software for implementing network enhanced gateway functionality using NFV and/or SDNs, or the like, as described in detail above. Data provided by an application server may be formatted as one or more web pages (comprising HTML, JavaScript, etc., for example) and/or may be forwarded to a user computer705 via a web server (as described above, for example). Similarly, a web server might receive web page requests and/or input data from a user computer705 and/or forward the web page requests and/or input data to an application server. In some cases, a web server may be integrated with an application server.

In accordance with further embodiments, one or more servers715 can function as a file server and/or can include one or more of the files (e.g., application code, data files, etc.) necessary to implement various disclosed methods, incorporated by an application running on a user computer705 and/or another server715. Alternatively, as those skilled in the art will appreciate, a file server can include all necessary files, allowing such an application to be invoked remotely by a user computer, user device, or customer device705 and/or server715.

It should be noted that the functions described with respect to various servers herein (e.g., application server, database server, web server, file server, etc.) can be performed by a single server and/or a plurality of specialized servers, depending on implementation-specific needs and parameters.

In certain embodiments, the system can include one or more databases720a-720n(collectively, “databases720”). The location of each of the databases720 is discretionary: merely by way of example, adatabase720amight reside on a storage medium local to (and/or resident in) aserver715a(and/or a user computer, user device, or customer device705). Alternatively, a database720ncan be remote from any or all of the computers705,715, so long as it can be in communication (e.g., via the network710) with one or more of these. In a particular set of embodiments, a database720 can reside in a storage-area network (“SAN”) familiar to those skilled in the art. (Likewise, any necessary files for performing the functions attributed to the computers705,715 can be stored locally on the respective computer and/or remotely, as appropriate.) In one set of embodiments, the database720 can be a relational database, such as an Oracle database, that is adapted to store, update, and retrieve data in response to SQL-formatted commands. The database might be controlled and/or maintained by a database server, as described above, for example.

According to some embodiments,system700 might further comprise a gateway device725 (similar togateway device105,205,305, or405 ofFIGS. 1-4, respectively, or the like).Gateway device725 might comprise a switch730 (similar to switch110,210,310, or410 ofFIGS. 1-4, respectively, or the like) and a computing system735 (similar to computing system125,225,325, or425 ofFIGS. 1-4, respectively, or the like). AlthoughFIG. 7 showscomputing system735 embodied withingateway device725, the various embodiments are not so limited, andcomputing system735 may be embodied external to thegateway device725, while being communicatively coupled to thegateway device725 via a host port (not shown; similar tohost port130,230,330, or430 ofFIGS. 1-4, respectively, or the like).System700 might further comprise one ormore NFV entities740 and/or one ormore SDN controllers740. In some cases, the one ormore NFV entities740 might include, without limitation, one or more of a NFV resource manager (e.g., NFV resource manage150 ofFIG. 1, or the like), a NFVI system (e.g.,NFVI system155 ofFIG. 1, or the like), a NFV orchestrator (e.g., NFV orchestrator160 ofFIG. 1, or the like), a NFV MANO architectural framework or system (e.g., NFV MANO architectural framework orsystem165 ofFIG. 1, or the like), a VNF manager (e.g.,VNF manager170 ofFIG. 1, or the like), a VIM (e.g.,VIM175 ofFIG. 1, or the like), other NFV entities (e.g.,other NFV entities180 ofFIG. 1, or the like), a NFV entity (e.g.,NFV entities250,350, and450 ofFIGS. 2-3, or the like), and/or the like). The one or more NFV entities and/orSDN controllers740 might communicatively couple with, and control, at least one ofswitch730 and/orcomputing system735, as described in detail above with respect to the embodiments ofFIGS. 1-4.

While certain features and aspects have been described with respect to exemplary embodiments, one skilled in the art will recognize that numerous modifications are possible. For example, the methods and processes described herein may be implemented using hardware components, software components, and/or any combination thereof. Further, while various methods and processes described herein may be described with respect to particular structural and/or functional components for ease of description, methods provided by various embodiments are not limited to any particular structural and/or functional architecture but instead can be implemented on any suitable hardware, firmware and/or software configuration. Similarly, while certain functionality is ascribed to certain system components, unless the context dictates otherwise, this functionality can be distributed among various other system components in accordance with the several embodiments.

Moreover, while the procedures of the methods and processes described herein are described in a particular order for ease of description, unless the context dictates otherwise, various procedures may be reordered, added, and/or omitted in accordance with various embodiments. Moreover, the procedures described with respect to one method or process may be incorporated within other described methods or processes; likewise, system components described according to a particular structural architecture and/or with respect to one system may be organized in alternative structural architectures and/or incorporated within other described systems. Hence, while various embodiments are described with—or without—certain features for ease of description and to illustrate exemplary aspects of those embodiments, the various components and/or features described herein with respect to a particular embodiment can be substituted, added and/or subtracted from among other described embodiments, unless the context dictates otherwise. Consequently, although several exemplary embodiments are described above, it will be appreciated that the invention is intended to cover all modifications and equivalents within the scope of the following claims.

Claims (35)

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, with a network switch disposed within a gateway device, network traffic, at least a portion of the network traffic being directed to a client device via the network switch and via corresponding client port among a plurality of client ports;

routing, with the network switch, the network traffic comprising at least the portion of the network traffic being directed to the client device to a host computing system, wherein the host computing system is different from the client device;

determining, with the host computing system, one or more characteristics of the portion of the network traffic being directed to the client device that is routed from the network switch to the host computing system, wherein the one or more characteristics of the portion of the network traffic being directed to the client device used to select the one or more VNFs comprise at least one of one or more attributes of an Ethernet frame, one or more media access control (“MAC”) source addresses, one or more MAC destination addresses, one or more Internet Protocol (“IP”) source addresses, one or more IP destination addresses, one or more transmission control protocol (“TCP”) source ports, one or more TCP destination ports, one or more priority bits, one or more particular bit patterns, bandwidth of a flow, one or more switch ports, one or more ingress ports, one or more Ethernet type identifiers, one or more virtual local area network (“VLAN”) identifiers, one or more network protocol identifiers, or one or more action instructions;

based on the determined one or more characteristics of the portion of the network traffic being directed to the client device that is routed from the network switch to the host computing system, selecting, with the host computing system, one or more virtual network functions (“VNFs”); and

sending, with the host computing system via the network switch and the corresponding client port, at least one VNF of the selected one or more VNFs to the client device, the at least one VNF being selected by the host computing system based at least in part on one or more characteristics of the at least a portion of the network traffic that is directed to the client device, wherein the at least one VNF provides the client device with one or more functions, the one or more functions comprising at least one of an activation function, a deletion function, a specialized function, or an Internet of Things (“IoT”) proxy function.

2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the network switch and the host computing system are under control of at least one of a network functions virtualization (“NFV”) entity or a software defined network (“SDN”) controller.

3. The method ofclaim 2, wherein the NFV entity comprises at least one of a NFV orchestrator, a network functions virtualization infrastructure (“NFVI”) system, a NFV management and orchestration (“MANO”) system, a VNF manager, a NFV resource manager, a virtualized infrastructure manager (“VIM”), a virtual machine (“VM”), a macro orchestrator, or a domain orchestrator.

4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the host computing system and the network switch are disposed within a single gateway device.

5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the host computing system is located external to the gateway device in which the network switch is disposed, wherein the gateway device comprises a host port, and wherein the host computing system communicatively couples to the network switch via the host port.

6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the host computing system hosts an instantiated network functions virtualization infrastructure (“NFVI”) system.

7. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the network switch comprises at least one network-to-network interface (“NNI”) and at least one user network interface (“UNI”), the NNI receiving the network traffic and communicatively coupling with the host computing system, and the UNI communicatively coupling with the client device via the corresponding client port of the plurality of client ports.

8. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the network switch is a virtual network switch that utilizes a network switch VNF to provide network switching functionality.

9. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the gateway device is selected from a group consisting of a customer premises equipment (“CPE”), a router, a switch, a network element, a demarcation device, a WiFi gateway device, a hypervisor platform, and one or more virtual machine-based host machines.

10. The method ofclaim 9, wherein the CPE comprises at least one of an optical network terminal (“ONT”), a network interface device (“NID”), an enhanced NID (“eNID”), a residential gateway (“RG”) device, a business gateway (“BG”) device, or a virtual gateway (“vG”) device, wherein the gateway device is located at or near a customer premises associated with a user of the client device.

11. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the client device includes a user device comprising one of a tablet computer, a smart phone, a mobile phone, a portable gaming device, a laptop computer, or a desktop computer.

12. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the client device includes a device selected from a group consisting of a small form factor pluggable (“SFP”) device, an enhanced SFP (“SFP+”) device, a compact SFP (“CSFP”) device, a gigabit interface converter (“GBIC”), and a universal serial bus (“USB”) pluggable device.

13. The method ofclaim 12, wherein at least one of the SFP device, the SFP+device, or the CSFP device comprises at least one of a SFP network interface device (“NID”), a SFP router, a SFP modem, or a SFP wireless access point.

14. The method ofclaim 12, wherein the USB pluggable device comprises one of a printer, a scanner, a combination printer/scanner device, an external hard drive, a camera, a keyboard, a mouse, a drawing interface device, or a mobile device.

15. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the client device includes a VNF-capable user device comprising one of a set-top box or an Internet of Things (“IoT”) controller, wherein the method further comprises:

sending, with the host computing system and via the network switch and the corresponding client port, at least one second VNF of the selected one or more VNFs to the client device, the at least one second VNF being selected by the host computing system based at least in part on one or more characteristics of the at least a portion of the network traffic that is directed to the client device.

16. The method ofclaim 15, wherein sending, with the host computing system and via the network switch and the corresponding client port, the selected one or more VNFs to the client device comprises bursting, using an application programming interface (“API”), the one or more VNFs from the NFV entity to the client device.

17. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the one or more functions further comprises at least one of an operation function, a firewall function, an operations, administration, and management (“OAM”) function, or an application-related function.

18. The method ofclaim 1, wherein each of the plurality of client ports comprises one of a local area network (“LAN”) port, a Wi-Fi port, an advanced technology attachment (“ATA”) port, a serial ATA (“SATA”) port, an external SATA (“eSATA”) port, a powered eSATA (“eSATAp”) port, a mini SATA (“mSATA”) port, a SATA Express port, a M.2 port, or a universal serial bus (“USB”) port.

19. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the network traffic between the network switch and the host computing system is at least one of uni-directional network traffic, bi-directional network traffic, or split directional network traffic that originates from at least one of one or more of the plurality of client ports or one or more network ports.

20. A gateway device, comprising:

a transceiver;

a plurality of client ports;

a network switch communicatively coupled to the transceiver and to each of the plurality of client ports, wherein the network switch:

receives network traffic, at least a portion of the network traffic being directed from the transceiver to a client device via the network switch and a corresponding client port among the plurality of client ports;

routes the network traffic comprising at least the portion of the network traffic being directed to the client device to a host computing system, wherein the host computing system is different from the client device; and

forwards one or more virtual network functions (“VNFs”) to the host computing system, wherein the host computing system determines one or more characteristics of the portion of the network traffic being directed to the client device that is routed from the network switch to the host computing system, wherein the one or more characteristics of the portion of the network traffic being directed to the client device used to select the one or more VNFs comprise at least one of one or more attributes of an Ethernet frame, one or more media access control (“MAC”) source addresses, one or more MAC destination addresses, one or more Internet Protocol (“IP”) source addresses, one or more IP destination addresses, one or more transmission control protocol (“TCP”) source ports, one or more TCP destination ports, one or more priority bits, one or more particular bit patterns, bandwidth of a flow, one or more switch ports, one or more ingress ports, one or more Ethernet type identifiers, one or more virtual local area network (“VLAN”) identifiers, one or more network protocol identifiers, or one or more action instructions and, based on the determined one or more characteristics of the portion of the network traffic being directed to the client device that is routed from the network switch to the host computing system, the host computing system selects the one or more VNFs and sends via the network switch and the corresponding client port at least one VNF of the selected one or more VNFs to the client device.

21. The gateway device ofclaim 20, further comprising:

the host computing system.

22. The gateway device ofclaim 20, further comprising:

a host port, wherein the host computing system communicatively couples with the network switch via the host port.

23. The gateway device ofclaim 20, wherein the host computing system comprises at least one of an x86 host computing device or an advanced reduced instruction set computer (“RISC”) machine (“ARM”) computing device.

24. The gateway device ofclaim 20, wherein the host computing system comprises one or more computing cores.

25. The gateway device ofclaim 20, wherein the network switch and the host computing system are under control of at least one of a network functions virtualization (“NFV”) entity or a software defined network (“SDN”) controller.

26. The gateway device ofclaim 25, wherein the NFV entity comprises at least one of a NFV orchestrator, a network functions virtualization infrastructure (“NFVI”) system, a NFV management and orchestration (“MANO”) system, a VNF manager, a NFV resource manager, a virtualized infrastructure manager (“VIM”), a virtual machine (“VM”), a macro orchestrator, or a domain orchestrator.

27. The gateway device ofclaim 20, wherein the network switch is a virtual network switch that utilizes a network switch VNF to provide network switching functionality.

28. The gateway device ofclaim 20, wherein the transceiver is a virtual transceiver that utilizes a transceiver VNF to provide transceiver functionality.

29. The gateway device ofclaim 20, wherein the gateway device is selected from a group consisting of a customer premises equipment (“CPE”), a router, a switch, a network element, a demarcation device, a WiFi gateway device, a hypervisor platform, and one or more virtual machine-based host machines.

30. The gateway device ofclaim 29, wherein the CPE comprises at least one of an optical network terminal (“ONT”), a network interface device (“NID”), an enhanced NID (“eNID”), a residential gateway (“RG”) device, a business gateway (“BG”) device, or a virtual gateway (“vG”) device, wherein the gateway device is located at or near a customer premises associated with a user of the client device.

31. A system, comprising:

a network switch;

a host computing system; and

at least one of a network functions virtualization (“NFV”) entity or a software defined network (“SDN”) controller, the at least one of the NFV entity or the SDN controller controlling:

the network switch to route network traffic comprising at least a portion of the network traffic being directed to the client device via the network switch and a corresponding client port among a plurality of client ports, to the host computing system, wherein the host computing system is different from the client device;

the host computing system to determine one or more characteristics of the portion of the network traffic being directed to the client device that is routed from the network switch to the host computing system, wherein the one or more characteristics of the portion of the network traffic being directed to the client device used to select the one or more VNFs comprise at least one of one or more attributes of an Ethernet frame, one or more media access control (“MAC”) source addresses, one or more MAC destination addresses, one or more Internet Protocol (“IP”) source addresses, one or more IP destination addresses, one or more transmission control protocol (“TCP”) source ports, one or more TCP destination ports, one or more priority bits, one or more particular bit patterns, bandwidth of a flow, one or more switch ports, one or more ingress ports, one or more Ethernet type identifiers, one or more virtual local area network (“VLAN”) identifiers, one or more network protocol identifiers, or one or more action instructions and based on the determined one or more characteristics of the portion of the network traffic being directed to the client device that is routed from the network switch to the host computing system, select one or more virtual network functions (“VNFs”) and send via the network switch and the corresponding client port at least one VNF of the selected one or more VNFs to the client device; and

the network switch to forward at least one VNF of the selected one or more VNFs to the client device, the at least one VNF being selected by the host computing system based at least in part on one or more characteristics of the at least a portion of the network traffic that is directed to the client device, wherein the at least one VNF provides the client device with one or more functions, the one or more functions comprising at least one of an activation function, a deletion function, a specialized function, or an Internet of Things (“IoT”) proxy function.

32. The system ofclaim 31, wherein the NFV entity comprises at least one of a NFV orchestrator, a network functions virtualization infrastructure (“NFVI”) system, a NFV management and orchestration (“MANO”) system, a VNF manager, a NFV resource manager, a virtualized infrastructure manager (“VIM”), a virtual machine (“VM”), a macro orchestrator, or a domain orchestrator.

33. The system ofclaim 31, wherein the host computing system and the network switch are disposed within a single gateway device.

34. The system ofclaim 31, wherein the host computing system is located external to a gateway device in which the network switch is disposed, wherein the gateway device comprises a host port, and wherein the host computing system communicatively couples to the network switch via the host port.

35. The system ofclaim 31, wherein the host computing system hosts an instantiated network functions virtualization infrastructure (“NFVI”) system.

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